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President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol walks into the office of the presidential transition committee in the Tongui neighborhood of Seoul on April 7. (pool photo)

On Saturday, Yoon Suk-yeol will reach the halfway point in his time as president-elect. A month will have passed since he was elected, with a month remaining until his inauguration on May 10.

When Yoon clinched his victory around 4 am on March 10, he pledged to “respect the legislature and the spirit of the constitution and work with the opposition parties to take care of the public.”

But how well has Yoon kept that pledge? Unfortunately, several analysts say there have been few signs of communication, unity, or cooperation over the past month.

Shortly after his victory in the presidential election on March 10, Yoon described the election process as “a time for learning many things about how to pay attention to the voice of the people” in the ballot-checking office at the National Assembly.

Yoon placed renewed stress on communication in a press conference the same day. “I will communicate with the legislature. I will communicate candidly with the public about pressing matters of governance,” he said.

But in regard to the relocation of the presidential office, which became his first agenda item as president-elect, he opted to make a unilateral decision, without canvassing the public for its opinion or taking any steps to build consensus.

Yoon personally held a press conference about the relocation plan on March 20 in which he said, “Without some bold decisions, we can’t part ways with the imperial presidency.”

Yoon remained resolute when reporters pointed out that a majority of the public opposed relocating the office. “I think the philosophy and resolution of the person in charge of the government are important, too,” he remarked.

That only served to raise questions about the “public communication” that Yoon had said was the reason he wanted to move the presidential office out of the Blue House in the first place.

In his press conference on March 10, Yoon said he had been elected because of “the public’s demand for a politics of unity.” But that pledge has been tarnished by several examples of disunity even within his presidential transition committee.

One example was the resignation of Kim Tae-il, president of Jangan University, who had led the political subcommittee of the transition team’s national integration panel. Kim had been unable to overcome internal opposition after it was revealed that he had been critical of Yoon’s pledge to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

The likely candidates for Yoon’s first Cabinet, which will soon be announced, have also been criticized for emphasizing merit, without ensuring that young people and women are represented.

“Doing a good job and getting results helps public unity. While arranging [the Cabinet], we’re more interested in teamwork that can get results than in [insisting on] generation, region or gender [representation],” said Chang Je-won, Yoon’s chief of staff, in a meeting with reporters on Thursday.

Considering that Yoon won the election by an extremely small margin, figures in Yoon’s own People Power Party have been saying that it would be good optics for Yoon to personally put national unity on the agenda.

While Yoon will have to contend with the opposition Democratic Party’s commanding majority in the National Assembly after his inauguration, there’s little evidence that he’s been working on ways to address that challenge over the past month.

The general view is that he hasn’t taken any steps to reinforce his promise to work with the opposition. For example, Yoon has continued to reinforce party loyalty by lunching with party lawmakers, but no opposition party figures have appeared on his published luncheon guestlists. Nor has he made any attempt to reach across the aisle.

For example, a number of Yoon’s close allies have emerged as contenders for internal party positions or candidates in the regional elections, and Yoon has reportedly called for robust action to ensure victory in the upcoming regional elections at every meeting with party lawmakers. That has prompted some pundits to say that Yoon still regards the other side not as partners in governance but as opponents to defeat.

“The reality is that there’s little chance of cooperative governance between the ruling and opposition parties since the situation in the presidential election has basically carried over into the upcoming regional elections. The evident clash between the outgoing and incoming administrations has also impacted this mood,” said Choi Chang-ryeol, a liberal arts professor at Yong In University.

“[Yoon] provoked conflict by announcing his plans to relocate the Ministry of National Defense after the election and has failed to resolve suspicions or concerns related to cooperative governance or communication. He has also failed to disclose how he intends to lead the new administration or implement policies or to provide any grounds for feeling excited about the new administration,” said Jhee Byeong-kuen, a professor of political science and foreign relations at Chosun University.

By Kim Mi-na, staff reporter

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